Аннотация от автора: The history of Russia is usually dated from the 9th century ad when a loose federation of the eastern Slavic tribes was achieved under the legendary Rurik. At this time, Kiev was the political and cultural center. Vulnerable due to the flat land that surrounded them, the Kievan rulers sought security through expansion--a policy that subsequent Russian leaders frequently pursued...

Аннотация от автора: Decades of Soviet mismanagement resulted in the catastrophic pollution of land, air, rivers, and seacoasts. Air pollution is especially a problem in the Urals and Kuznetsk (where vast populations are exposed to hazardous emissions from metal-processing plants) as well as in the Volga and Moscow regions. In 1992 Russia had the world's third-highest level of industrial carbon dioxide emissions, which totaled 2.1 billion metric tons, a per capita level of 14.11 metric tons. However, in 1996 the total dropped to 1.5 billion metric tons and in 2000 the total was about 1.4 billion metric tons...

Аннотация от автора: ssia has several soil and vegetation zones, each with its characteristic flora and fauna. Northernmost is the so-called arctic desert zone, which includes most of the islands of the Arctic Ocean and the seacoast of the Taymyr Peninsula. These areas are characterized by the almost complete absence of plant cover; only mosses and lichens are to be found. Birds and mammals associated with the sea (sea calf, seal, and walrus) are typical of this zone...

Аннотация от автора: Most of the country has a continental climate, with long, cold winters and brief summers. There is a wide range of summer and winter temperatures and relatively low precipitation. January temperatures are in the range of 6°c (45°f) on the southeastern shore of the Black Sea. A record low temperature of -71°c (-96°f) was recorded in 1974 at the northeast Siberian village of Oymyakon, the lowest temperature ever recorded anywhere in the world for an inhabited region. In many areas of Siberia the soil never thaws for more than a foot...

Аннотация от автора: From west to east, the country can be roughly divided into five large geographic regions: the Great European Plain, the Ural Mountains, the West Siberian Plain, the Central Siberian Plateau, and the mountains of the northeast and southeast. The Great European and West Siberian Plains contain a variety of terrain, including grasslands and farmlands as well as forests, swamps, and large regions of tundra. The Caucasus Mountains, located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea at the southwest of the Great European Plain, are divided into two chains separated by lowlands. The Caucasus Mountains form the border with Russia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia and mark the boundary between Asia to the south and Europe to the north. The highest peak in the Caucasus Mountains is the extinct volcano Mt. Elbrus (5,642 m/18,510 ft); this is also the highest peak in Russia and Europe. The lowest point in Russia is at the Caspian Sea, 28 m (92 ft) below sea level. The Caspian Sea is the world's largest lake...

Аннотация от автора: Major building began in the Moscow Kremlin only after the wooden fortifications were replaced by stone walls in the 1360's. The present towers were added during the late fifteenth century by Italian architects, although the preserved tower roofs date only from the seventeenth century...

Аннотация от автора: Russian tsar Nicholas II left the newly renamed city of Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg) in 1915 to assume personal command of the armies at the front. He did so against the urgent advice of his ministers, who argued that an already disrupted administration would be strained to the collapsing point if the autocrat ultimately responsible for decision making was five hundred miles out of touch. They contended that it was foolish to take such a step after the series of defeats Russia had suffered during the summer: setbacks resulting in the loss of Warsaw, the sacrifice of two million casualties, and the virtual exhaustion of Russian reserves of weapons and ammunition. Instead of being the rallying point of the Russian people at war, the monarchy would become their scapegoat by accepting de facto responsibility for anything else that might go wrong with the conduct of operations.Nicholas was adamant. Since August 1914 he had wanted to take the field at the head of his troops. He spent as much time as possible at army headquarters, frequently accompanied by his son, playing the roles of a loving father and an interested spectator. His own military skills were best illustrated by his personally testing a new design of uniform and pack in a nine-hour march before the war. If Tsar Nicholas manifested the virtues of a storekeeper, as a soldier he showed the qualities of a supply sergeant. Nor did the tsar possess the force of character to impress the senior staff officers who now did the real work of command. None of the military decisions made between his assumption of command and his abdication in 1916 owed anything to his input. Instead, familiarity bred neglect. The tsar was no longer a figure of awe and mystery--just the unassuming middle-aged man in an unpretentious uniform who waited every day for the regular letters from his wife.Nicholas's gesture had international consequences. The French and British governments interpreted it as nailing the flag to the mast: the tsar's government would stand or fall with the outcome of the war. Germany too processed the decision as a signifier, ending any possibility of a negotiated peace. The real significance of Nicholas's decision, however, was as his advisers predicted. His physical removal from Petrograd left the threads of government hanging. They were taken up by the tsarina. German-born and lacking the intellectual development to shape her driving energy, which was increasingly in thrall to her sinister adviser monk, Grigory Rasputin, Alexandra would complete the catastrophe of the empire...

Аннотация от автора: Ten west European countries joined with the United States and Canada to form NATO in 1949 as a military alliance intended to provide collective defense in the event of an attack by the Soviet Union. During the Cold War, NATO was countered by a similar alliance among the communist countries of Eastern Europe, which joined with the Soviet Union to form the Warsaw Pact. With the collapse of communist governments in the Soviet bloc between 1989 and 1991 and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, however, observers questioned NATO's mission in a post-Cold War world...

Аннотация от автора: In a move that would have been inconceivable just a few years earlier, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) approved a partnership agreement with Russia on May 14, 2002. The meeting took place in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik, where presidents Reagan and Gorbachev in 1986 engaged in arms-control talks that helped bring about the end of the cold war. The location only added to the symbolic importance of the event. But the agreement also raised many questions as to just how NATO-Russia cooperation would work--and how far it would extend.

Аннотация от автора: World War I doomed Imperial Russia. By March 1917 its armies were suffering defeat, its internal order was collapsing, and its monarchy had fallen. The Provisional Government that assumed power failed to solve the country's many problems, and within just a few months it teetered on the verge of collapse. On 7 November 1917 revolutionary forces of the radical Bolshevik party seized power in the capital, Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg). In the weeks and months that followed, the Bolsheviks spread and consolidated their authority over much of Russia. By late 1920 they were the undisputed masters of most of the territory of the Russian Empire...